How has ‘end times’ expectation shaped Christian history and theology?
Martyn Whittock is a historian and a Licensed Lay Government minister in the Church of England. He has just published a fascinating history of the interpretation of 'end times' ideas, The Cease Times, Again? 2000 Years of the Use and Misuse of Biblical Prophecy ,and I was able to inquire him about his book.
IP: You are by training a historian. And then what made you lot desire to explore the more theological thought of 'the end times'?
MW: Every bit a Christian and a preacher (I am a Licensed Lay Government minister in Salisbury diocese) the promise of the return of Jesus (the second coming) and the creation of a new sky and earth is, personally, a very significant conventionalities. So, I offset from the point of having personal faith in history having a purpose and an end-point and that God has revealed enough of this through scripture to give us conviction in this fact. Notwithstanding, I am also very aware – again from personal experience – that this is a conventionalities that can, in some forms, seriously impact on (even misconstrue) outlooks and can become something of an obsession.
In the 1970s I read The Tardily Neat Planet World and the similar, and my outlook was greatly influenced by the idea that nosotros were living in the 'last days.' I even contributed an article to a rather obscure journal called Prophetic Witness, in which I sought to identify Eastern European nations with tribes mentioned in the Old Attestation (Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, etc). So, cease-times beliefs are both part of the religion tradition of which I am part; just also, is an area where I have a very item personal (and at times rather alarming) back-story of involvement. I say 'alarming' because I realise at present that I was function of a whole outlook (much of it originating in the The states) which was, in effect, a spiritual counterpart to Cold War politics. In short, it said more well-nigh geo-politics than theology, although that is certainly not how I viewed it in the 1970s.
Furthermore, information technology is undeniable that this belief has a track record of being wrongly (though sincerely) used in church history to justify the most boggling things. I became aware of this at Bristol University, where I read politics and my dissertation was on radical Christian millenarians of the 17th century. Sitting in the British Library and studying pamphlets written by so-called '5th Monarchy Men' (they took the name from an interpretation of Daniel chapter 7) made me realise that they passionately held versions of beliefs which were like ones I had held in the mid-1970s. This study gave me an historical perspective and an academic interest in the awarding of stop-times beliefs over the centuries.
As a result, I wrote When God Was Male monarch: Rebels and Radicals of the Civil State of war and Mayflower Generation. I came across the same confident 17th-century end-times beliefs when I wrote Mayflower Lives, and when I explored the deep roots of the electric current US evangelical-right and the Trump phenomenon in Trump and the Puritans. I should, at this point, say that I describe myself every bit an 'evangelical.'
Information technology was also clear that practical eschatology has been hugely influential throughout Christian history. I came across the Magyars and Vikings being identified as terminate-times actors by 10th-century commentators when co-writing The Vikings: From Odin to Christ.
Then I came across a heightened (and highly dubious) presentation of the subject during the turbulence of the 2022 European union Referendum; and it has had an impact on US foreign policy under Trump. Forms of information technology continue to influence a sizeable number of believers in their assessment of Middle Eastern politics, climatic change, and Covid-xix.
It was this combination of personal experience, historical fascination, and current concern, that led to me writing an overview of finish-times beliefs and their application in: The Terminate Times, Over again? Besides as being a dramatic and extraordinary history, I feel that mod Christians would handle their estimation of prophecy more charily if they knew more about the history of mistakes.
IP: Yous offer an interesting listing of biblical passages, from both Testaments, which give the background to 'end times' thinking. But it is noticeable that this isn't really a ascendant theme in the Bible—at to the lowest degree not in the way that many people think well-nigh it today.
Why practice you recollect 'end times' thinking is so appealing? Does it take a particular appeal in the time we live in—or has this always been the example?
MW: It has always influenced Christian outlook over the centuries, even when it has not been the dominant topic of conversation. Still, it is particularly prevalent at times of stress and turbulence.
It tin can be argued that the church in the 4th and vth centuries sought to defuse information technology past increasingly viewing prophetic texts as allegorical. They had had their fingers burnt past the activities of Montanist heretics and other radical millenarian sects of the late Roman Empire. This helps explain some of the reservations in the eastern church regarding the Book of Revelation. Other factors led to the shift in outlook too, but this became the official stance until the Reformation.
However, it didn't prevent outbursts of very specific identifications and speculation. I have already mentioned the Magyars and the Vikings. Other explosions occurred during the Crusades. Political stress could trigger information technology too and we see the accusation of beingness the Antichrist existence thrown dorsum and along between popes and emperors in the Middle Ages. And then the Reformation fracturing of Christendom created a tsunami of end-times activism at all levels of the Protestant move, that lasted for two centuries. [See higher up an analogy past Lucas Cranach of the whore of Babylon in Rev 17 wearing a papal tiara in Martin Luther's 1534 translation of the Bible.] Some of it got very bloody indeed, equally radicals sought to create 'New Jerusalems' or extirpate those they regarded every bit being allies of Antichrist.
This association of the popularity of end-times beliefs and societal stress, turbulence and dubiety continues today. We run into it in the response of some to Covid-19. The same thing occurred during the 14th-century Black Decease. In the USA tens of millions of Christians view domestic and strange events through an end-times lens. A Russian orthodox tradition is re-emerging in Putin's Russian federation which frames the West as representing the forces of Antichrist. This is all consistent with much past behaviour regarding end-times thought.
It can also give validation to those who feel threatened or who are creating an identity at a fourth dimension of upheaval. In Northward America the self-confident Puritan outlook fed into the cultural Dna of what became the USA. Later, information technology became a spiritual dimension to Cold State of war politics amid many Western evangelicals (non just in the USA). Every bit the modern US evangelical customs shrinks in size it is increasingly using eschatological outlooks to buttress its identity and frame its view of the world. One has only to read Franklin Graham's eschatological dismissal of the threat of climatic change on twitter, terminal November during COP26, to run across this in activity.
Information technology can also be used in an attempt to put things outside the realm of critical debate. In 2016, I debated with UK Christians who were convinced that the Eu is the fulfilment of prophecies in Daniel and Revelation. This is an adaption of a conventionalities with which I was very familiar in the 1970s. Some of the 'prophetic maths' has changed; the accusation of it being a ten-nation-confederacy in fulfilment of Daniel 7:24 and Revelation 13:one has gone rather tranquility. But, overall, the old arguments accept been adapted, rebranded and reissued. It feels like an endless game of 'eschatological whack a mole.' In this item surface area of debate, I think that it has become a way past which Christian nationalism in the U.k. can be presented in spiritual terms.
IP: You lot very helpfully list some features of 'end times' reading of biblical texts—and it isn't a very flattering list! Texts are pulled out of their textual context, put together in odd ways, and removed from their historical context. Is there a case for simply maxim 'We demand to learn to read the Bible meliorate'—or is the issue deeper than that?
MW: Really, I call back that just about sums information technology upwards. We demand to learn to read the Bible better. The misuse of prophecy (as I would term it) rests largely on very poor biblical exegesis. Verses taken out of context and bolted onto other passages, as well taken out of context; and and so treating the blended result as a coherent slice. Jumping from literal to figurative interpretations (particularly shaping interpretations of any passage with a number in information technology). Piddling or no allowance made for the genre of the type of scripture or the context of original composition. Reading passages with a highly imaginative lens, that is coloured by pre-existing political and cultural ideas. There is a lot of that.
My report suggests that much end-times speculation rests on these shaky foundations. Merely the arroyo is enormously influential. I merely has to think of the belief in 'the Rapture.' I don't think that there is any persuasive scriptural foundation for it and, as my research shows, just near nobody believed in it before the middle of the xixth century. Now it is a mainstream belief for tens of millions of Christians. And, in my opinion, it is based on an extremely questionable use of scripture.
IP: You offer us a long list of apocalyptic/eschatological movements in the history of the Christian faith. Which of these surprised or interested you almost? Which ought to be improve known?
MW: Well, there are certainly a lot! If I had to pick 1, it would exist the '5th Monarchy Men.' Extremely influential in the 1650s, their membership spread across many kinds of Puritan congregation (only as eschatological beliefs cross denominational boundaries today). They included high-ranking members of the Parliamentary army and were a significant minority within the so-called 'Barebone's Parliament' (also called the 'Nominated Parliament') of 1653. This was a unique endeavor to create a theocratic parliament in Great britain.
I become the feeling that this is something like what the more farthermost among US eschatologically-motivated white evangelicals would similar to see imposed on their nation (regardless of democratic norms). The FMM evidence how, in a time of turbulence and disharmonize, extremely radical ideas tin get highly influential. That is a alert to all of us.
Incidentally, members of my own family were implicated in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, in which the last outpouring of FMM ideology was bubbling below the surface. The rebellion failed.
IP: There are some obviously negative effects that some of these movements have had—merely in fact it is non all bad news. What do you see as having been the more positive outcomes of 'finish times' hope from different periods of history?
MW: Despite the worrying manifestations – due to human error – the persistence of this Christian belief reminds u.s.a. that end-times belief has, at its cadre, a positive trust in God. The end-times promise is, in essence, a positive belief. It insists that God is sovereign; history has a purpose; a broken and fallen creation (however we understand that) will be restored; injustice and suffering will stop; God volition be experienced at the heart of a transformed human community. The second coming of Jesus, which volition enable all this to occur, is a wonderful hope. This is found in all the movements – fifty-fifty though it is often terribly distorted in practise.
IP: Some of import movements for change and reform have had a strongly apocalyptic experience to them—not to the lowest degree the Reformation itself. To what extent has eschatology been integral to these moments of alter—or exercise yous think misreading of the apocalyptic hope can be separated out?
MW: I remember information technology has often been a very significant feature. Although the ultimate expectation of imminent catholic change proved to exist incorrect in all these movements (so far), I still call back it made a vital contribution to many movements which desired to see the Kingdom of God implemented on globe and kingdom business furthered. While they were wrong in the short term, many had their hearts in the right place in terms of long-term goals.
IP: From reading this history, what practise you call back are the main lessons as nosotros engage in 'end times' language in the present moment?
MW: We need to engage with scripture carefully; and explore cease-times texts within the wider context of scripture and taking into account their genre, complexity, and the context and intention of their composition.
Essentially, trust in God, become on with solar day-to-day 'kingdom business' and loving transformation; and don't speculate virtually the imminence of the second coming. Live in the lite of that hope – but leave the timing to God.
An event (like climate change) might exist part of end-times processes (I don't know) but we are nonetheless responsible for how we behave regarding it. Indifference to it tin can never be justified eschatologically.
Too, just because something may be a prophetic fulfilment does non mean it stands exterior of being assessed by gospel standards and principles. Nor does it mean that Christians are bound to offering it unquestioning support. I am thinking here about the Middle E.
IP: Cheers, Martyn. Y'all do offer a fascinating insight into the way the eschatological movements have had a surprising and pregnant influence at fundamental moments in Christian history—very helpful indeed!
Martyn Whittock is a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church building of England. As an historian and writer, or co-author, of fifty-four books, his piece of work covers a wide range of historical and theological themes. In addition, as a commentator and columnist, he has written for several print and online news platforms; has been interviewed on radio shows exploring the interaction of faith and politics; and appeared on Sky News discussing political events in the USA.
His books, that include exploration of end-times beliefs in action, are: When God Was Male monarch: Rebels and Radicals of the Civil War and Mayflower Generation (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2018); Mayflower Lives: Pilgrims in a New Globe and the Early American Feel (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019); and Trump and the Puritans: How the Evangelical Religious Right Put Donald Trump in the White Firm (London: Biteback, 2020).
The recently-published exploration of 2000 years of end-times thinking and activity is: The End Times, Again? 2000 Years of the Utilize and Misuse of Biblical Prophecy (Eugene, Oregon, Usa: Pour Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock, 2021).
How do we make sense of 'stop times' language in the New Attestation? Should we be looking for 'signs' and predicting dates—or is there a better way to think nearly these things?
Bring together me for a Zoom teaching afternoon on Th Feb 3rd, or come for a relaxing break and retrieve about these issues at Lee Abbey in Devon on May 2nd to 6th.
You might besides be interested in my Grove bookletKingdom, Promise, and the Stop of the Earth.
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